Entrepreneurial Shanghai?!?
Here is Tom Friedman in yesterday’s NYT:
There are actually two Chinese economies today. There is the Communist Party and its affiliates; let’s call them Command China. These are the very traditional state-owned enterprises.
Alongside them, there is a second China, largely concentrated in coastal cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong. This is a highly entrepreneurial sector that has developed sophisticated techniques to generate and participate in diverse, high-value flows of business knowledge. I call that Network China.
And here is China expert Yasheng Huang:
Today, Shanghai cannot claim any large-scale, well-known private-sector businesses. In addition, the city is at the bottom of the country in terms of entrepreneurial measures.
Tags:
20. January 2010 at 06:28
it’s been clear for years that the columnist named tom friedman does not know much about which he speaks.
i much prefer the artist tom friedman. http://www.designboom.com/portrait/friedman.html
20. January 2010 at 07:43
The most entrepreneurial provinces in China are Zhejiang and Guangdong (not coincidentally these provinces also have had few large state-owned enterprises). In general, the coastal provinces are more entrepreneurial than the interior provinces.
20. January 2010 at 08:25
q, But you have to admit that he shows a lot of self-confidence. 🙂
greg, Yes, that’s right. Zhejiang’s government has been the most accepting of private entrepreneurs.
20. January 2010 at 11:50
Ive always appreciated Tom Friedman as a Middle East geo-political analyst, but his economics writing has always been suspect.
20. January 2010 at 16:28
Both his geo-politics and economics have long been weak. I’m not a fan of Matt Taibbi, but his “Flathead” has all that needs to be said. On the other hand, Tom does have a grand total of one good column to his credit.
20. January 2010 at 18:38
ca and TGGP, An economist once did a very good critique of “The World is Flat” but I can’t recall who.
21. January 2010 at 19:17
TGGP,
That Flathead link is priceless. Thank you very much.